Contrasting Numbers
by Snapper
Summary: It's an incredibly rare case in which Peter ends up the lucky holder of two Quidditch Cup tickets. But here's the catch: he has three enthusiastic friends battling it out for the honor of accompanying him. Time's a-tickin', what'll he do?


**Contrasting Numbers**  
  
**Summary:** It's an incredibly rare case in which Peter ends up the lucky holder of two Quidditch cup tickets. But here's the catch (and you know there's always a catch): he has three enthusiastic friends battling it out for the honor of accompanying him. Time's a-tickin', what will our hero do?  
**DISCLAIMER:** I humbly bow down to J.K. Rowling, for my mere mind could never have thought up such wondrous things. The fearsome four and all other characters are her's, plot's mine.  
**A/N:** A fic...about Peter? Good lord. Not only about him, but in _his_ perspective. Wow. S'right people! Iiiiintroducing Peter Pettigrew--match maker, lord of cunning plans, and overall good/lovable guy! "_...Huh?_" you say, rather confused. "Yes." I reply, grinning rather stupidly. Hey, I can love the guy can't I? They didn't make it illegal...yet. My first fic ever, all feedback welcome. Just try not to rip a hole too big in my ego. ;) It's a hard task to do, but none-the-less it does happen.  


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**Chapter 1**

And so our story starts--_Nah..._

Once upon a time--_No..._

A long time ago in a galaxy--_Nope..._

_Alright!_ I admit it. Writing has never been my forte--and believe me, that Snape and Malfoy have been so overly loving as to point out that indeed, I can't write nor do anything constuctive had my life depended upon it. They've also taken the liberties of--no, no I'll save that for later. No reason to bog the Peanut Gallery down with my humiliations just yet. Hah! Yeah, that's definitely for later. When you're least expecting it too. It'll be like _*BAM*_ and... and...alas, I'm rambling. So getting on with it, I'll just say that this is the beginning. Nay, I'm telling you it is. So there. Witness and be amazed.

On with the story...

And so, after a daring escapade from a surely death, the depths of doom, the grips of grief, the tethers of terror, and a now somewhat steamed Severus Snape dressed as Clarence--heart warmingly amusing clown of the Howdy Doody show--our heroes once again have served justice. Peaceful nights would ensue and all would sleep well knowing that revenge had been registered on the dastardly fiend. Or as they well thought, but all else otherwise sane members of the Peanut Gallery would argue that Snape indeed bared closer resemblance to Bozo than Clarence. Yet our vigilante's hunger for wrong- righting had been satisfied and--

_*GRUMBLE*_

Just as well, the mood was gone, fluttering off as a new hunger came on. Preferably for lunch. Too bad the guys didn't think the same.

"_Honestly_, Pete, lunch was all of an hour ago."

Cross that, I forgot we had lunch. It's an easy mistake!

"My sincerest apologies, oh high and mighty James--"

I scowled, as always I never got to finish a thought. NEVER! Sirius liked to jump in and start prying at James' patience and set off his short fuse. Sure it was entertaining and all what with seeing James throwing a fit, but he always seemed to cut me off. Not Remus. Me. I feel the hurt. I've convinced myself that it's just part of inherited bad luck, helps a little I guess. Enthusiastic as always, Sirius gave an arm swing...in an enthusiastic manner and in his most upbeat, sing-songy voice chimed in, "Awww, come off it, Jamsie-boy! Peter's a growing kid, he needs his food." Not to mention he shoved a Chocolate frog in my mouth enthusiastically, "Here have a frog on me, old buddy!" leaving me to slump over trying to get the danged thing out of my wind passage. I believe that's where Remus comes in and says something irrevelent, mainly to get James to calm down and on a side note to switch topics since this one was probably headed down the road of 'Petey's weight problem.' For that I'm thankful, even more so as Remus performs a simple spell to dislodge the frog from my organs. It's kind of ironic that Sirius and James are there standing up for me against Slytherins--but it's Remus who's there for me when those two knuckleheads start throwing witty remarks my way. Or frogs down my throat! Either way it's all Remus in such cases. (Insert cheering for Remus! Whoo! Alright...)

"I'm up for something to eat, myself, Peter. James. Sirius. I believe it'd be a good idea that we all go since Snape will probably be stalking around fuming about how he's going to arrange your deaths." _Amazing._ The straight to the point-ness of it all, the calm almost tired way he says it, and how he can get the two most troublesome students Hogwarts has ever seen to stop and consider his suggestion-- and almost always agree to it--it's just astonishing. Maybe it had something to do with that annoyed look he shot at us, those tired amber eyes that contrasted with his pale skin--then his sandy colored hair which seemed to outline his sleepless expression. That and a certain other factor of his person of which I won't mention, but it's sure enough to scare the crud out of anyone. It's had me up in jitters, yet James and Sirius insist he's completely harmless...but it's still nerve splitting.

For the moment there's a long silence. Almost reflexively James and Sirius stare between each other, it's a routine thing I suppose, they'll always look to each other before agreeing or disagreeing. I just assume that they're sending sublimal messages somehow since they always have the same answer once that exchange of glances is done. Or maybe they've got super powers! I always wanted some of those ever since I read a muggle comic book about some Spider-man. Mum didn't appreciate the comic that much though, something about injecting violent thoughts into my head. I don't know. Probably never will. She lit it on fire to make sure I couldn't read it, does anyone else have these kinds of problems?! Oh high lord of paperback entertainment, forgive her. She knows not of the wrongs she has done.

Sorry! I'm getting thrown off course again.

Once James and Sirius break off that whole mind reading thing, they fall into two identical grins while chorusing in (at the same time too), "Okay!" It's quite frightening actually. When I first met them I thought they were brothers. They may not be, but I'm convinced had they been. James seemed to be the taller of the duo, not much, but noticably. His rebelling black hair always stuck out at funny angles which was accompanied by a set of grayish blue eyes hinting at mischief with a gleam. Then there were his boxy glasses which had a bad habit of sliding down, you'd think he might just tape them on instead of pressing them up every few minutes. Ah well, that's James for you. Usually accompanying James was Sirius, and I swear, he was probably the most guilty of us yet he pulled off being innocent _so well_. Very enviable, I lost track of how many times he's charmed teachers into letting us off the hook. Otherwise his dark brown eyes always seemed to radiate with energy behind stray wisps of his shoulder length black hair. Heck, when it comes down to it all, he's just hyper! There's rarely an occasion gone by when he wasn't pulling some insane prank, and the rest of us gets dragged along for the ride whether we wanted to or not.

"Yeah..." I added in as an after thought once I realized that, I too, had a voice in the matter.

The trip down to the kitchens was uneventful besides Sirius getting chased by James for a crack about Lily, slamming into a suit of armor, and hobbling around in an exaggerated death scene. I can't argue, Sir's good for entertainment, even if it's because he's running into metal objects. ...Er...that didn't sound _too_ ill spirited, did it? I meant that in a good way! Swear it! It's only funny if he walks it off, I wouldn't laugh if he was bleeding to--MOVING ON! Mind you, we're not supposed to be in the kitchens, strictly an elf zone or something. The elves don't seem to care though they enjoy it more than we do. This one named Blinky was tripping over everything, half skipping around, and grinning like...like...an elf. Or something to that effect. That sight wasn't nearly at humorous as a smug looking Sirius waltzed back to us with his arms loaded as much as they could hold and then some with all types of candy. Sirius was grinning even more wildly than the elf, out of the corner of my eye I saw James slap a hand to his forehead then fumble a bit with his glasses as they fell off.

Remus however was looking at the sweets in deep thought. No--I think it was more like deep love, or lust, maybe both. "Better be sharing that, Sir." He almost got away with a handful of Every Flavour Beans too, but Sirius snatched everything away and promptly stuck his tongue out.

"Hey! I don't believe I approved of any such notion! And besides, Petey agrees that I need the food more'n you."

"Of course you do! You're a growing kid, right?" Revenge! HA HA! I grabbed the nearest frog and stuffed it in Sirius' mouth, standing back to behold my daring stunt. Too bad Sirius enjoyed it. What a killjoy he is. Ruining my pranks. Oh sorry, it was his prank first. But still--! I should be able to backfire his own pranks on him! It's not fair.

And so ensues another dull trip back to the Boy's dorm. Even futher came a period of time when Sirius ran down the hallways on a dare by James, wearing only his underwear. I think James was bluffing, but Sirius went full-heartedly with it and was more so skipping than running through the hallways chanting about 'The Underwear-clad Marauder is here! Never you fear!' I won't go into details, but I heard from other students that someone wearing red spotted boxers and a cape was spotted out by the lake conversing with a tree stump...make your own conclusions.

Another day was nearly ending, oh wait--clock says 1:00, it ended. There's just no way anyone can sleep after a few dozen Chocolate Frogs, it's not humanly possible. Sirius excluded of course, he was still in his cape and underwear get-up, snoring loudly and hanging half off his bed. Remus was buried in another book and James was trying to shoot candy wrappers in Sirius' mouth. Me? I was getting a nagging feeling I'd forgotten something, something I meant to tell the guys...but everything snapped back into place as I caught sight of James' Quidditch equipment strewn across the room randomly. Immediately I sprung the top to my chest open and gazed at the two paper slips labeled with seat numbers to this year's Quidditch Cup. Only two tickets though. It was going to be a real bugger to choose who to take. Just then James nailed Sirius in the eye, causing Sirius to jump a few feet howling in agony. Getting his mind straight he shot James an annoyed look, but I wasn't fast enough at hiding the tickets.

"What d'ya got there, Petey?" He didn't wait for my reply and pryed the tickets away, holding me back with one hand while he inspected them. I mentally cursed myself and gave up, preparing myself for the worst... "HOLY CRIPES! Petey... _pal o' mine_, you've been holding out on us, haven't you?" He waved the tickets in the air just beyond my reach. I looked pathetically to James praying that he wouldn't see, knowing James--James the Quidditch freak--he'd hold hostages in order to get his hands on those tickets.

"P-Peter? What're th-those?!" No! _NO!_ James is already spluttering, not good! He was staring eyes wide at the tickets in Sirius' hand, why can't he be like Remus and--NO! Remus is eyeing them the same way! What a mess.

I slumped down onto my bed and effortlessly avoided the three baffled gazes, the secret was out and there was no way I could have dodged it. Looking miserably at the wall I sighed, "So...who wants to go to the Quidditch Cup with me?" I'm pretty sure the expressions on their faces were priceless, but I had no desire to see them. Lord knows what was in store for me next, and I'm pretty sure I didn't want to know.


End file.
